Rounding up Jamil, Band-aids and more

Nothing wrong, just a great deal of activity around here – lots of people in and out since my son is still home from college – that is keeping me from reading news or surfing the web, or writing. Hopefully tonight I can come up for air!

Real quick on the Jamil Hussein bit – I’m not going to say anything until it all breaks a little more, because it asks more questions. I did laugh my head off, though, to see how all of a sudden he was found, “oh, look, there he is! He was right next to the Rose Law Firm Billing Records all this time!”

The timing of the finding of Jamil Hussein is pretty interesting, too. Right after AP Exec. Editor overdoes it with the disdain, we get ta-da! Jamil!

I’m a little confused about it – he is now, supposedly, facing arrest, but the AP doesn’t want to identifying him because it might make him a target? What does quoting someone by name 61 times do? Suddenly this is a worry? Whether he’s identified or not he won’t be charged with anything? Then why is he being threatened with arrest? Who is he, really? What’s his story, and why does he seem to report almost exclusively with the AP? What can we learn, from Jamil Hussein, about how news information is gathered and reported from Iraq?

So, let’s see if this is the right Jamil Hussein and then let’s hope someone gets to ask him about his story that 6 human beings were torched alive, that four mosques were burned down, etc. After that we’ll know what’s what.

Eason Jordan says the fuss is not over and says, “Many violent incidents reported by Captain Hussein via the AP were not reported by other western news organizations, raising suspicions about whether all those incidents occurred. The controversy likely will linger in this area, with third party reporting being done to determine the accuracy of Captain Hussein’s statements to the AP.”

Jordan writes of mistakes and lessons learned. Perhaps when all of this is clear and confirmable, “mistakes and lessons learned” will be acknowldeged on all sides – which would probably be a good thing – but it doesn’t seem like anyone is there, yet.

Seedubya says Jamil is real and he’s fabulous! He writes: I implied that Capt. Jamil Hussein was a fraudulent source here and here. Now the MOI’s admission has shown that implication was not correct, and the fraud or error concerning Hussein’s identity was MOI’s, not AP’s.

But whether or not Capt. Jamil Hussein is an MOI employee changes very little in the overall situation concerning what happened in Hurriya on Nov. 24th. I was interested in this matter since before the MOI denied his status, and noted at the time:

…it looks less like Capt. Hussein is an eyewitness to this event, and more like he’s just an unofficial spokesman. But a spokesman for whom? At best, this is a policeman who is not authorized to speak for the Ministry of the Interior, being consulted for his version of events as if he were, and his version is being reported as if it were the official version because of…lazy journalism. That’s a problem, because we don’t know how it is he’s supposed to know the things he says he knows. Or why he’s always inserting himself into these stories like some kind of Iraqi Greg Packer.

That’s still the big question, and one of several problems that still stand about the reporting on Hurriya.

Read his whole post on the behavior of the AP.

As much as some on the left would like to pretend that this whole brouhaha has only ever been about “finding” Jamil Hussein, bloggers have been asking about the “facts” of his claims since day one, as ajacksonian writes.

And Curt at Flopping Aces highlights how the “facts” are in dispute. He writes: Whats curious is that no one other the AP has reported this verification of Jamil Hussein. Centcom hasn’t. The Iraqi MoI hasn’t. Jamil Hussein has still not been produced.

As I said, I’ll wait for more info…I don’t think anyone is certain of anything right now. Lots of bloggers are writing lively about all this, though.

At Protein Wisdom, guest blogger Karl gives good background.

Gateway Pundit has a list of what the AP needs to clarify.

Confederate Yankee says things are getting lively and he is writing fiesty. He seems to be having fun discussing how the AP has walked back a few componants of the original story, and that other witnesses do not seem to be forthcoming. As the AP says it continues to stand by its report, CY wonders which report that might be.

Democracy Project says Haditha and Jamil should lead to media reform.

Small Town Vet has many links.

Moving on…I never knew about Navy Corpsmen before the Iraq conflict, but I’ve lately read enough about them. to know I really admire them.

Meanwhile, it’s worth noting that an AP stringer has been killed, and I concur with Patterico’s thoughts.

Don Surber looks at airport pushback in the matter of political correctness.

John Stephenson says the US will be giving millions to Abbas very soon.

The 100-hour goalposts are receding. Soon 100 hours will be, several weeks? Gateway Pundit has warm fuzzy video of Speaker Pelosi that should make you feel better. Dr. Sanity says we’re all children, now. Sigmund is looking at it through shrink perspective.

Fausta explores what it meant and means to be a liberal.

Little noticed among all of this, including the “increase in minimum wage” stories: the Income Gap is Not Growing.

Do you need a change of pace? Sometimes you just have to read something that’s NOT about politics or all the mudslinging, and remember that we all have some common experiences with which we can identify. Blue Crab Boulevard utterly charmed me with this one.

Blogging (and emailing) will be light for perhaps the next week. Family stuff, a project that needs finishing and trip-planning going on. Please keep checking back.